Sunday - Just relax
Monday - WORK 5, Karate, Soccer VBS (S,J), Soccer Camp (D)
Tuesday - WORK?,  Soccer VBS (S,J), Co-op Registration Day, Soccer Camp (D)
Wednesday - WORK 5, Soccer VBS (S,J), Massage (L)
Thursday - WORK 5, Karate,  Soccer VBS (S,J), Soccer Camp (D)
Friday - WORK 5,  Soccer VBS (S,J), Soccer Camp (D)
Saturday - Book Club (Shakespeare in the Park!)
Sunday -

James had a good time at his nature camp. He liked the canoes the best. The class was small and he knew several kids from co-op and soccer. He reconnected with a boy that was in Spanish class and they'd like to get together sometime.

James and Suzy wanted to go to VBS this week at the church we sometimes attend and it turned out to be a very nice VBS, although very small. So they were there 3 hours each night. Suzy missed the last night because she was invited to spend the night with a friend.

David and I went on Saturday afternoon with friends to see Captain America -a GREAT movie! We went out to dinner afterwards and had a nice time.

Karate on Monday was "ninja training" - kind of a fun day instead of training. But Thursday, headquarters canceled classes due to the Excessive Heat Warning. So we only had karate one time. We skipped the karate picnic in favor of getting some things done around the house. It's not often we have a Saturday free and so we completed some long overdue chores. We need to work hard through the next month to get ready for testing at the end of August.

This week brings more VBS for James and Suzy. It's the annual Soccer Camp/VBS that we have done for a few years now. David also has soccer camp 4 nights this week - it's soccer conditioning and not so much fun, really; so keep him in your prayers as it's going to be very hot and probably humid.

Our homeschool co-op registration is Tuesday - a full day for me as I will be there the whole time working. It's nice to see all our friends from co-op, many of whom we don't see during the summer. Plus we get to meet the new families and see what classes everyone is choosing.

And Wednesday - I get my first massage ever! There's a massage school in Lapeer and they charge just $10! Bob has been there twice.

I completed week 5 of my 10K training, though the heat meant I didn't do as much exercise as I intended. I did my first full 4 mile run though with a few bits of walking. I'm getting there! I picked a 10K the first weekend of October, so I am on track with training and I will probably give myself another week or two of repeats so I am ready at the right time.

We're considering a trip to Lake Michigan - will it be camping or a hotel? Or will we decide on Lake Huron instead? Or Mackinac? Gotta nail that down here soon. We have one free weekend before the end of summer. It actually wasn't free, but I un-committed myself from something I didn't really need to do and made it free. So we will travel SOMEPLACE that weekend!

Weekly Preview and RECAP

Saturday - Spent the morning working on at the soccer fields, the afternoon with the kids, and the late evening working on soccer registration
Sunday - Home
Monday - WORK (4 hrs daily)
Tuesday - WORK, Soccer conditioning (E,J,S)
Wednesday - WORK
Thursday - WORK, Beach Day
Friday - WORK, Soccer (D)
Saturday - Spend with friends?

Well, this last week seemed to get sucked into the vortex. July has come and gone now. I spent a LOT of time working on soccer teams and they are created now. I am processing a few late registrations and have the uniform order just about ready to go - just need to figure the quantities. (That sounds easier than it is. lol)

David went to a friend's house this afternoon and will spend the night. The others are supremely jealous. Well, kids - call a friend and make some plans!

I have the soccer teams all created & doublechecked for things like "fall only" players and siblings who need to be on the same teams. I am waiting for several important emails/callbacks. Don't people know I am on a schedule?? lol I have the uniform colors all chosen (one of the fun things) and just need to input the quantities of each size - for about 400 people. The teams obviously have to be set before that can happen, so I have waited until the last possible moment. I registered 3 late players today and am waiting on 2 more.

We skipped church today - slept in way too long. We didn't go last week either due to our spontaneous trip to Port Huron.

Thursday night, a friend hosted a Moms Night Out. She has a lovely backyard pool and hot tub, and a tiki bar. She made drinks for us and we chatted around the pool, in the pool, in the hot tub, and around the fire. It was lovely. Came home at about 1am! Wonderful night.

This week is a low-key week for us. I do plan to have the kids do some math and reading and probably some of their other subjects as well. Next week too, most likely. Then we'll take off the rest of the month - a week to get ready for camping, a week of camping, a week to recover from camping and get ready for lessons to begin. They'll begin the week after Labor Day probably.

Camping week is the last full week of August and that is our homeschool camping week. Our favorite week of the year, I think!

Soccer practices will start in there as well. David starts his this Friday and I imagine the other three will begin soon. Emily is playing again this year - with AYSO, on a travel team. James and Suzy are also playing AYSO - U12 and U10 respectively. David is playing for the same team he played for last year - FAITH Falcons, also a travel team, comprised solely of homeschooled boys. This year he will have several friends on his team - which also means *I* will have someone to watch games & practices with! LOL Or carpool with, which is even more important.

The little Easy Set pool in the yard has been great this summer. I think it's the one Mike and Michelle gave us a couple years ago. If we continue to enjoy it, I think we might consider upgrading to a larger pool next year. This one is not very deep. But it's so nice for them to be able to just go get wet for a while without it being a huge deal to drive somewhere and/or pay money. We have yet to go to the waterpark this summer. We should go, as it almost closed this year due to lack of patrons last year. The other county waterpark DID close.

Next week is the County Fair. We tend to go to that every other year, and this is our "on" year. So, need to budget for that - both time and money.

No summer reading program for us this year, though there has been plenty of reading. I just couldn't face the thought of keeping up with a program. The kids went to one of the very first library programs but we haven't made any of the others. And the one we really wanted to attend is this week and I forgot to call and make reservations, so all the spots have been taken and there is a long waiting list. Ah well. There's always next year.

I am blowing my way through Eat Pray Love. The writing is delicious! The woman has a beautiful way with a phrase and I can almost find myself in her life through her descriptions. However it's also deeply disturbing in some ways. Can't wait to discuss it with my book club, but also afraid of discussing it as I think the book may offend some people. It will be interesting, no doubt!

Inception is top of my "to see" movie list. I want to go see it this week! There are others I want to see as well, plus a slew of films that slipped away before I could. Added them to my Netflix Q.

Going to cut everyone's hair tonight. Except David, of course, since he is gone. I think he planned that rather sneakily! LOL

The hot dogs are ready, so I'm going to go eat!

Weekly Preview

Sunday - Relaxing Day (and catching up),
Monday - Memorial Day, I can WORK if I want to (4 hrs daily), Bob has to work 8 hrs
Tuesday - Lessons, WORK, Meeting
Wednesday - Lessons, WORK, Art Class (E,J,S?)
Thursday - Field Trip, WORK
Friday - Lessons (or field trip), WORK
Saturday - Nothing on the agenda! Lots to do!
Sunday - Tomboy Tools party - all are invited!

James and Suzy are both finished with soccer now. They had a great year!

My Getting Fit blog is here.

Had a very nice Friday night/Saturday at a friend's house. So relaxing. Totally needed it. Did not get much sleep, however. LOL

Hard to believe May is just about done. Where in the world did it slip off to? I realize that with my work, I need to be more intentional about how I spend my time. The important things (relationships) are getting overlooked in favor of the urgent things (errands, phone calls, lessons, the actual work hours, etc...). Going to work harder on this in June. Not quite sure how to go about it, but trusting God will show me. I'm not all that great at personal relationships in the first place, but I'm trying.

No garage sales this weekend. Drove past a BUNCH! The weekend's not over, I guess! Still time.

Bob found a bat in the house last night while we were gone. REALLY glad we were gone. HATE bats in my house. Love them out in the yard, doing their "thang" - you know, catching skeeters.

Can't find my favorite yellow jammies anywhere. Where in the world did I leave them? Did one of the kids put them someplace?

A/C in my car - not working.

Finished Little Women today (book club tonight). LOVED it. I think I must have read the abridged version years ago; I do know I read it, maybe even twice. Read the unabridged version this time and it was great. Watched the Winona Ryder film tonight at book club and dripped tears the whole time. Very good. And to think I didn't want to read/watch this. Would have totally missed out on something wonderful!

Another friend is moving away.

A Little Update - What Goes First

Sarah wrote: It would be nice to devote more time to blogging, but when life is crazy, it's the first to go.

Actually, when life is crazy, first exercise vanishes, then sleep. Reading comes next and blogging comes somewhere after that. So if I've made it all the way down to mostly not-blogging, then you can tell I'm crazy-busy.

I will devote 1 more minute to posting and then I need to work.

James and Suzy both had soccer games last night and James had one the night before. I love watching soccer in this weather. Soccer registration has morphed to mail-in at this point, but my work is just beginning. Paperwork! Entering player ratings from this year. Entering new players. Updating returning players. Matching coaches to teams. Ordering uniforms. Calling back people about late registration. Updating the phone message.

Enough about soccer. The weather has been gorgeous. Wish I could spend more time in it! Then again, who am I kidding? I've never been outdoor-sy!

I am reading Little Women for book club. Didn't really want to read it, but am enjoying every page. Emily read it for her lessons, so she will be attending book club with me this month. I don't think she'll be the only girl there either.

We went to a great field trip on Tuesday and Suzy had a nice birthday on Wednesday. Thursday was garage sales and getting David to his last dissection class (late! argh!).

OK, that was 2 minutes. I'm off to work. (Seeing as I don't actually GO anywhere, that's a figure of speech! lol)

Oh yeah, I'll have photos soon.

Wednesday Wherefores

Wednesday already? How'd that happen?

Work is going well. After an initial sharp learning curve, I think I've settled into a good understanding of the tasks involved. I am clicking past user searches and evaluating the relevance of the results that came up. Sounds fairly simple, until you see the intricacies of it. A small percentage of my work is reviewed by another annotator and the overlap rate has to be pretty close. I picked up three extra hours this week, so that's serendipity.

Spanish class has been a little frustrating lately. It seems the expectation is that the students can learn the language in the one 80 minute class we have each week, spending the least possible amount of time on homework. Obviously many traditionally-schooled students have 5 hours of foreign language weekly and still don't manage to come out with any fluency, so I don't think too many of my students can manage it on one class per week and no effort. I guess I need to reiterate the concept of spending time OUTSIDE of class on Spanish in order to achieve mastery.

Monday night I could have gone to the movies with friends, but I didn't. Worked instead.

Last night read some of Wuthering Heights - nearly done. Probably could finish it tonight, although I don't know if I will make the effort. Did finish the Trigiani book last night. Pretty good.

Last Monday was the long long day where I had to drop Bob at work and pick him up. So I took advantage of dropping some materials from other libraries in my local library's drop box. The library courier takes them back to the proper libraries. I've been told it usually takes a day or two. Well, on FRIDAY, several DVD's still had not made it back to the home libraries, and therefore they were QUITE overdue by that point. I don't make a habit of keeping library materials past their due dates, so I was pretty annoyed. Saturday they were still not showing up as returned, but it was past library hours when I checked the computer. So on Monday, I was determined to call and track them down, wondering by this point if they'd been stolen from the drop box or something. However, they checked in as returned on Monday morning - A WEEK LATE. Argh. So now I have huge fines at one library where I had 3 DVDs out. I need to go beg mercy from them. I could have returned them myself on Tuesday or Wednesday and owed less money. Plus one of my children has a terrible habit of keeping books under the bed or in piles around the room and has had a number of items out late recently, racking up some fines. So I am taking a moratorium from library materials for a little bit. We still have lots to read around the house, and the kids will just have to deal with no movies out for a while. I don't really have TIME to watch anything right now anyway.

Wanted to run yesterday, but I had a meeting that went for about 4 hours instead of the two I'd imagined. So since something had to give, it was running. The weather was gorgeous and I was actually REALLY looking forward to running at a path in Lapeer. Ah well, I will go running in a little while today. It's overcast but it's 50 degrees!

A Little Free Time - finally....

Well, there is no work for me to do right now, despite me sitting down to do it. The client needs to upload some more for us. So, while I am waiting, a quick blog entry can fill the time.

My cable was out this morning, so no internet or phone. Therefore I could not work then either. So far today, I've managed 40 minutes of work between the cable outage and the no-work problem.

I took Emily out for her 13th birthday today - we had lunch at the Chinese buffet and then went to the thrift store and tried on clothes. She got 3 shirts, a pair of leggings, and a skirt and I got a shirt. Then we stocked up on groceries at Walmart. As a new teenager, we gave Emily permission to wear one item of makeup outside the house. She chose lipstick, so we bought her one of those and some hair stuff.

A new battery got my van going again, so I have wheels.

I have not managed to work out lately. I want to, but I just haven't made it a priority. Can't WAIT for warm weather so I can just go running in the AM's again.

All this working is quite stressful, to be honest. I can do it, but it's going to require a bit more restructuring than I had imagined. Hopefully the kids all step up to the plate and help out, or they'll be in school. The job is a necessity. When I worked before, Bob was home all the time. Now he's working 4 days a week too. Thankfully I can set my own hours.

Homemade pizza is being created now (not by me, you notice!) and soon we will have some gifts to open and cake and ice cream.

Bob is working at the homeless shelter tonight and I think the girls are going along with him.

I finished reading Remarkable Creatures and started Wuthering Heights.

I'm sure there's more I could say, but I better go do some other stuff so I can work later.

Sunday night - change in plans

Oh crud! I meant to work out today and am just now thinking of it!

I didn't end up going to Grand Rapids because my van is not in working order. So, I missed out on the fun time my sister Janet had planned for us. And Emily was sorely disappointed at not hanging out with her grandma. But there's always another time, right?

Bob thinks the van needs a new battery which we SHOULD be able to buy tomorrow. In the meantime, I have to drive him to work tomorrow and kill 2-1/2 hours waiting for my class to start. Hours that I should be at home working. I could drive back home and do that, and I still might, but since my class and his store are in the same town, it seems pointless.

My nails are no longer painted. Too much work!

Made brownies again tonight and they didn't turn out right. Still yummy though.

Since I have to drive Bob to work, I am planning to get up early and work at least one hour, preferably two before we have to leave. Then I'll only have two hours more to work when I get home at about 7:15pm. Looooong day for my first real day on the job.

Book club was awesome as usual. I always say it was the BEST meeting EVER. And it was! I made quiche and it was yummy. And the discussion was lively and insightful. We rollicked through the movie as always.

So, off for a shower and a few chapters of my book - Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Then early to bed. I'm a working girl now.....

Thursday Night Thoughts

Thursday night = time for more blogging!

So, I discovered the Flip video camera in a non-operative state the other day and David confirmed tonight that it is indeed non-repairable. DANG IT. I told the kids whoever took the last video on that camera would have to pay for it, since they have a BAD BAD BAD habit of snatching it and recording things and just in general treating it carelessly.

Printer also not working. Think it is because of the darn refill cartridge not being read properly by the printer. HP has a known issue, due to their policy of the printers reading the cartridges and deciding if/when to call them empty. They don't want you to buy refills. Well, I think that ought to be my perogative!

(So, in case you aren't keeping score like I am, we've had issues with the following items in the last week or two: my van, hot water heater, printer, flip video camera, television, oh and David's iPod keeps freezing up. Argh!)

Made huge pot of chili tonight and cornbread. And made the BEST BROWNIES yesterday. Ohhhh man.... WANT MORE.

Training is going well. My scores have consistently been above average, so I think I am getting the hang of things. Next week, my training group will move into production. We are evaluating local market search results for a search engine. That's it in a nutshell, but my guess is that most of you still don't quite comprehend what I am going to be doing. No problem, just know that it's 4 hours a day of using the laptop and getting paid!

Co-op tomorrow. Veggie Tales and Book Club Saturday. Sunday Emily and I are driving to GR for a nice visit, though short. We have some awesome plans. Then early Monday morning have to HIGHTAIL it back to Dryden to pick up the rest and get to Spanish on time. Fun weekend but it'll be go-go-go!

Must spend some time Friday/Saturday thinking of unit study stuff for next week. Won't really have to start it before Tuesday though.

Better get a shower, do something with my nail polish, oh yeah - dye my hair (new shade!), and do my homework for training.

Weekly Preview

This week I start training for my new job. I have some self-study items to complete by Monday night and a training session each day Tuesday-Friday.

Sunday - Church, Persuasion on PBS (but my TV died!)
Monday - Lessons, Spanish, Self-Training for New Job
Tuesday - Lessons, Job Training, Sledding Day, Pampered Chef Party (if I can make it)
Wednesday - Lessons, Job Training
Thursday - Lessons, Job Training
Friday - Co-op, Job Training
Saturday - Veggie Tales Premiere, Book Club
Sunday - Dreamcoat w/Janet

A friend is having a Pampered Chef party Tuesday and I would love to go. It's been forever since I've been to one of those. I'd love to get a pizza stone or two, since we are starting to make our own pizzas again.

This week is not as busy as last week, but I do have some odds and ends to work on - soccer stuff, taxes still aren't done, some painting I'd like to accomplish.

I'll be heading to GR with Emily either Saturday night or Sunday morning early. Probably Sunday AM. Janet and I are going to paint the town TECHNICOLOR and Emily is going to spend some quality time with Grandma.

I only did one Tae-bo this past week - forgot to work out one day, was so busy the others that I just kept putting it off. And then last night, when I headed to do it, the TV wouldn't co-operate! Argh. I think I'm going running later today - it's sunny and supposed to hit 37 degrees! It's been a long time since I've gone running. And, no, the scale did not show a loss this week. Maybe the two paczkis I ate had something to do with that too. And all that laffy taffy. lol

I'm not giving anything up for Lent, but I am going to make a concerted effort to get to bed before midnight and get up and get started on the day.

Therapeutic Thursday

There, did you guess THAT post title? ROFL

Thursdays are generally therapeutic since I try not to schedule too much on that day of the week. We have no re-occurring events on Thursdays and I'd like to keep it that way. A nice empty column on the calendar, if you will....

Bob took 3 more loads of laundry out to his mom's house, so at least we're not buried under mounds of dirty clothes. We'll have to figure something out. And apparently, no - a new belt for the old dryer is not gonna solve this one. The old one is in pieces in the yard. The timer didn't work on it either, so it wasn't a trouble-free appliance to begin with.

Bob had today off and now he and David have left. They are going with a group from our church down to the inner city to work with a meal ministry there. I basically had to order David to go, so don't go thinking he's all altruistic. LOL

I am soooooo cold! In my own house, I am wearing sweatpants, socks, slippers (and my feet are still cold so I may get a second pair of socks), a tee, a long sleeved tee, and a hoodie. And earlier I was wearing a HAT. My fingers are cold. Temps outside are hovering around 15. Just too cold for this girl, even if I am a Michigander through and through.

When I got ready to go to the library last night, I realized it was Wednesday and the library closed early. So I missed it. Unfortunately too, since now I have to go out tonight in this frigid weather.

I did do Tae-bo last night though - the long video, 60 min - and I tried to go the extra mile, so to speak. I am sore today! lol Then I took a hot shower (a luxury nowadays, since our hot water is usually more like tepid) and read for a while in our book club book. Our choice is by Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and so far I like it!

I worked on a project for the homeschool group - the yearbook from LAST year, and I think I was able to solve the problem that was preventing anyone from getting it finished. That's a good thing.

The taxes were what I SHOULD have done last night and today, but there's time.

So, now for some dinner (something warm so I can turn on the oven!) and a library trip. And we should bake too, another reason to keep the oven on!

Four Days Away and Three Days Back

Oh, I've ignored this blog! Just a quick recap of last week. We were gone camping/visiting Monday-Thursday.

Monday we dropped the kids off to my parents and sister and Bob and I headed to Muskegon for a night away together, to celebrate our anniversary. (See, Debbie? No kids.)

The next day (Tuesday), we collected the kids and we headed to Lake Michigan for the afternoon then back to the rustic camping cabin we'd rented.

On Wednesday, we made the short trek back to my mom and dad's for lunch, then spent the afternoon with my sister Denise and her kids at their new house. We spent the night at my parent's house.

Thursday we relaxed with Mom and Dad for the morning and headed back home after lunch. I'm still not caught up with the laundry!

Friday we had Beach Day with our homeschool group and the weather was PERFECT. In the evening, I delivered David to a friend's for an airsoft birthday party and I hung out there for a while, then headed to the grocery store. Emily and James also spent the night at friend's homes.

Saturday was busy - gathering the children back from their respective friends and then heading out to a wedding - Bob's niece got married. David babysat here while Bob and I went to the wedding. Arrived back here, changed clothes and tidied up then headed out again to book club. WHAT a lovely evening THAT was. See Mirkwood for my book club report.

Today was finally a relaxing day. Church took up our morning, but the rest of the day was unscheduled - a little time online, a little newspaper reading, a little laying about, then a 4 mile bike ride (the last hill just about killed me), then we watched Pink Panther 2. I'm going to watch Slumdog Millionaire as soon as David goes to bed.

I'm ready for a new week with not much scheduled, but a lot to accomplish! I have a to-do list with 16 things on it right now and more tasks are bubbling to the surface of my mind as I write down others. This will be catch up week and also a week to get David ready for his mission trip next week. And there's still a LOT of laundry to do!

Monday - Writing, Bob and kids gardening
Tuesday - Lord of the Rings marathon (or will it be rescheduled?)
Wednesday - Writing, Veggie Tales Premiere
Thursday - Writing, Movie in the Park
Friday - Writing
Saturday - Writing

Weekend is over again.....

So, after Suzy's party Friday, I just kicked back and relaxed. David went up to the church and helped the Best Years Fellowship (senior citizens) pack up their garage sale. I got a nice email later saying what a great job he did. That's always nice to hear!

The kids watched something on TV and I stuck in some frozen pizzas. James had been visiting a friend and he didn't come home until bedtime. I showed my friend (who had been hosting James) what facebook is all about.

Saturday, David rode his bike up to the church again to see if they needed more help loading up the garage sale leftovers but they were done.

Then we headed up to town to the library and then to the soccer fields. It was Field Maintenance Day. Oh yeah, my favorite thing - GARDENING. NOT. Anyway, you'd be proud of me - I slung mulch and pushed a wheelbarrow. So did my kids! Even Suzy. She actually loved pulling weeds. James and David worked very hard. (Emily? Not her favorite thing either. She's going to need some practice on enjoying it.) Bob helped too. He can shovel more than I can, and he does it sitting down! He has some upper body strength! We worked there about an hour or so and then headed home.

The kids did their chores and I took a much needed shower, before heading off to the one-year anniversary of my book club! We gathered at an Italian restaurant for dinner and conversation before heading to the new apartment of one of our faithful members. Once there, we discussed our book (the play by Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest) and then watched the movie. It's one of my all-time favorites -so witty and enjoyable! I highly recommend it!

Today David got up and rode his bike (again!) over to the church for Sunday School. The rest of us didn't aim for SS, but David really likes his class. Anyway, I was upset with him for not telling me that he was leaving, although I sort of figured he would. But he told me later on that he DID tell me; I just apparently wasn't alert enough to process it. Oops! LOL Next time, he better write me a note too. The sermon today was really inspiring to me. I hope it was to many.

This afternoon, my neighbor had to move out. She lost her house to the bank. They're coming tomorrow to take possession. That's sad. She's lived behind us for a long time - twice actually. She grew up there and lived there when we first moved here, but sold it and moved away for a time. Then she bought the same house again and has lived there for several more years. She has three teenage children. She passed on a lot of stuff to us that she couldn't take along - mostly clothes, but also a few other things.

So, that took up some time this afternoon, as well as getting David ready for camp. He leaves Monday right after lunch. He is so excited that I'll be surprised if he sleeps at all! He has the busiest summer of all of us!

I think I'm going to go finish my book and eat some popcorn with cheese sprinkles.

The Week Ahead

The Week Ahead

This is our last week of lessons for the official "school year". It's also the last week of soccer for Suzy, but James has a game next week. Suzy's birthday is the busiest day of the week!

Sunday - Church, Grocery Shopping, Youth Group (D)
Monday - Lessons, Work
Tuesday - Lessons, Suzy's Birthday, Book sale?, Keepers at Home "Banquet", James Soccer Game
Wednesday - Lessons, Work, Help with soccer registration at night
Thursday - Lessons (LAST DAY), Work
Friday - Park Day, maybe a meeting with my coleaders, then I wanna do something FUN tonight! Anyone? Anyone?
Saturday - Soccer, Book Club & Cookout!

Actually Suzy has a soccer game Tuesday night too, but she and I are going to miss it because of the banquet.

Body Clock Not Reset.

So.....

Resetting the body clock doesn't seem to be working too well. lol

I went to see 17 Again again tonight with two different friends. Still loved it! Finally wrote my review and it's up at Mirkwood.

Odd hail and sun and rain and snowing thing happening today. Supposed to be nice Thursday and through the weekend, though. That's good.

Not yet finished with Daniel Deronda. Still have over 100 pages to go before Saturday night.

Done with the scoring job. Not taking another, if ever offered. Too stressful.

Was not a slacker Tuesday or Wednesday. Did a full day of lessons both days, despite reluctance from the students. Planning a full day Thursday and Friday as well. Only another month of regular lessons and we'll be on to summmmmmmmmerrrrrrrrr!

Trying to get our ducks in a row for summer, speaking of that halcyon season. David has camp in June. Our anniversary is in June. Book club each month. Homeschool camping in August. David has been invited to go away with friends to Cedar Point. Possibly going to church family camp in July. I'd like to go camping a couple more times too, since we have the pop-up. David has a mission trip in August.

Ok, time for bed. Fading fast.....

Ramblings of a Cold and Gloomy Tuesday

Tuesday already!? How did THAT happen?

Yesterday we took an extra day for Easter vacation, so I could do the taxes and the lesson plans. (Yeah, you know, the public schools had the day off too.)

Success on the taxes! E-filed. No problems. Money coming back. S'all good.

Success on the lesson plans too. All complete through the end of April. David's were already done, but I had three weeks of plans for the others to complete.

Worked an hour and a half on scoring tests yesterday. (Eleven hours between Sat/Sun!) Today I got up early and worked for an hour on that before anyone else got up. Worked another hour and a half after lunch and hoping to stuff another 30-45 minutes in before dinner. (But I have to stop blogging to do it! lol)

Watched the dumbest movie last night - Duplex, with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore. Never heard of it before and it must be fairly recent. Stupid movie. But I was doing other stuff while I watched it, such as trying on ALL of my clothes. Culled 2 paper sacks worth of clothing, mostly too big! yay! Have a medium size stack I am still considering what to do with - mainly stuff I like, but size is not QUITE right, or Size is right but I don't really like. Will deal with that tonight as well as pick the elastic waistband out of a sweatshirt that I adore otherwise. Going to watch Yes Man tonight.

Need to read seven or so chapters of Daniel Deronda tonight to stay on schedule. Book club members have been less than happy about this book choice. Several have just decided flat out they aren't reading it. But I'm enjoying it - truly - and my co-leader Darlene is farther along than I am and said that she can't wait to find out what happens next. And I'm told by many that the movie is wonderful!

Went to a couple libraries yesterday and the grocery store. Have been buying clearanced flowers at the grocery store lately. They make me happy. Yes, the ones in the picture are the same kind I got recently. (Although that's not my pic.)

On my 3rd cup of coffee for the day. Had about 5 hours of sleep last night. Should get more tonight. Don't wanna get sick like most of the other people living here.

The weather sucks, to be totally honest. I cancelled my soccer practice for this evening since it's rainy and in the low 40's. Isn't this MID-APRIL? James' coach cancelled his practice as well. I wouldn't have sent James anyway, since he still isn't 100% after his week-long illness - coughing mostly.

Chess Club was cancelled for today too, so we ended up with a commitment-free day.

The boys rearranged their room. I haven't gone up to look, but they're happy with having more space on the floor. David's bed is up high, and he's not that thrilled about that. James is using a bedframe we got on freecycle. It's elevated just a bit higher than a normal bed. Enough to store stuff underneath.

I need to buy an armoire for my clothes, so they can be downstairs instead of upstairs in the boys' room.

Ok, enough rambling and avoidance of work. Dinner will be ready soon!

Polka Saturday

Went to some garage sales yesterday and some today. Stopped at the grocery store and am heating up some frozen pizza. After we eat, we are going to the water park for the first of many visits this summer.

Tonight is the first meeting of our new Jane Austen Book Club. I have not finished our first book choice - Emma. I am finding it very slow going. I have heard from others that they are feeling the same way, so at least I won't be alone. I have rented the DVD of Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role). I have seen it once before, but it was a while ago. I had hopes of watching it in preparation for tonight, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

There is polka music playing, which is very trying to my patience, but apparently is to the liking of the male adult in the house. They play it all afternoon every Saturday. Happy happy joy joy.

We have something new. If you are on facebook, freecycle, or Seeds of Faith, you may already know about it. The rest of you will have to wait a bit. And then, you'll think I've lost my mind. ROFL